The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 10Dryden, John
Religion
The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 10
Dryden, John
English literature
"Morals, with this sect, were carried, or affected to be carried, to
the same degree of extravagance as religion. Give a quaker a blow
on one cheek, he held up the other: Ask his cloke, he gave you his
coat also. The greatest interest could not engage him in any court of
judicature, to swear even to the truth. He never asked more for his
wares than the precise sum which he was determined to accept. This last
maxim is laudable, and continues still to be religiously observed by
that sect.
"No fanatics ever carried farther the hatred to ceremonies, forms,
orders, rites, and positive institutions. Even baptism and the Lord's
supper, by all other sects believed to be interwoven with the very
vitals of Christianity, were disdainfully rejected by them. The very
Sabbath they profaned. The holiness of churches they derided; and they
would give to these sacred edifices no other appellation than that of
shops, or steeple-houses. No priests were admitted in their sects:
Every one had received, from immediate illumination, a character much
superior to the sacerdotal. When they met for divine worship, each rose
up in his place, and delivered the extemporary inspirations of the
Holy Ghost: Women were also admitted to teach the brethren, and were
considered as proper vehicles to convey the dictates of the spirit.
Sometimes a great many preachers were moved to speak at once: Sometimes
a total silence prevailed in their congregation.
"Some quakers attempted to fast forty days in imitation of Christ;
and one of them bravely perished in the experiment. A female quaker
came naked into the church where the protector sat; being moved by the
spirit, as she said, to appear as a sign to the people. A number of
them fancied, that the renovation of all things had commenced, and that
clothes were to be rejected, together with other superfluities.--The
sufferings which followed the practice of this doctrine, were a species
of persecution not well calculated for promoting it."
The quakers were particularly favoured by James II., owing to the
interest which Penn, the settler of Pennsylvania, had with that
monarch. That person took a lead in the controversy concerning the
Indulgence, by publishing a pamphlet, entitled, "Good Advice to the
Church of England."
Note IV.
_Next her, the buffoon Ape, as atheists use,
Mimicked all sects, and had his own to chuse;
Still, when the Lion looked, his knees he bent,
And paid at church a courtier's compliment._--P. 120.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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